Molchad | Brest

/ The former synagogue. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum The former Jewish cemetery. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum Former Jewish houses. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum The former pharmacy building which used to belong to a Jewish local. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum Ivan V. remembered how the Jews of the nearby village of Kolesniki were taken and sent to the Molchad ghetto. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum Maria M. remembered how the Germans made the Jews lie down in the square before going to the shooting. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum Ludmila P. showing the team the site of the mass shooting of the Jews. ©Nicolas Tkatchouk/Yahad - In Unum

Execution of Jews in Molchad

1 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:
Forest
Memorials:
Yes
Period of occupation:
1941-1944

Witness interview

Ivan V.: "I quietly watched the mass shooting, but didn’t see everything. I can tell you that it was carried out by German gendarmes and other units. Some Jews managed to escape. I heard the gunfire from my village, isolated shots or in bursts. I went to see the mass graves the following day." (Witness N°242, interviewed in March 2010)

Soviet archives

"In Molchad, in the "Popovskiye Gory" locality, the massacres of the inhabitants of Molchad and neighboring villages took place between July 15 and 18, 1942. 3,300 Jews were killed." [Act of the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission, RG22.002M/7021-89]

Historical note

Molchad is a village located 139km southwest of Minsk. It was a shtetl and in 1921, the Jewish population in numbered 1,020.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

An open ghetto was established in 1942, which accommodated Jews of the surrounding area as well. The Jews were sometimes forced to carry out hard labor, especailly agricultural work. A first shooting took place in June 1942, when 200 Jews were killed in a nearby forest in pits dug by the Jews themselves. The liquidation of the ghetto took place in July 1942 in the forest. There were approximately 3,000 victims. Approximately 200 “skilled workers” were shot shortly after.

Nearby villages

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